Williamsburg Outlet Mall to close

The Williamsburg Outlet Mall will shut its doors at the end of the year, an owner confirmed Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate,” general partner Mary Digges said. “There are just no retailers coming to the mall. We made a really tough decision to close at the end of the year.”

Digges said she advised the retailers last September, and timed the closing so they would get one last holiday rush in before the mall shuts down.

She said she was particularly concerned about the local merchants among the 17 remaining retailers, because they lack the national support that larger chains enjoy. “Those were the people that I was most concerned about.”

Digges said the mall was hit hard by the recession, uncertainty in the retail market, overbuilding in the area and changing consumer behavior.

There are no contracts pending for a new operator or buyer, and she has no development plans for the site.

The site has been at the center of a number of rumors over the years, including a pernicious one that Costco was moving in or that the land had been sold to Thomas Nelson Community College.

Digges confirmed that the owners have negotiated contracts in the past with a number of entities and offered their own redevelopment plans, but none came to fruition.

“I made this decision based on us,” she said. “This is costing us a considerable amount of money every month. I wish it was different.”

Digges and others with the limited liability limited partnership bought the outlet mall for $5.2 million in 2003, according to James City’s property records. That price was down from a high in 1989, when the 18.9-acre parcel sold for $16.87 million.